73 arrested, charged amid protests at Kavanaugh hearings

In Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the nominee is usually the one on the hot seat. Cory Booker, D-N.J. (left) and Sen.

“I’m very honored to be here”, Kavanaugh said. “I don’t know why it was marked ‘committee confidential'”. “Judicial nominees have figured out all sorts of ways to avoid answering that question”.

On one level, their desperation was understandable: A conservative majority could curtail Democrats’ ability to use an activist court to put through policies they can’t win democratically.

They stood in silence Tuesday, the first day of the hearings, lining the walkways and atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building, their austere silhouettes evoking the dystopian persecution portrayed in the novel-turned-Emmy-award-winning Hulu drama “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

Feinstein asked Kavanaugh about his 2009 article that concluded sitting presidents should be free from the distractions of civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions and investigations.

“I certainly didn’t like it, but I wasn’t shocked”, Miranda said.

“Just walked up to Judge Kavanaugh as morning session ended”, Guttenberg wrote on Twitter.

The decision to hide a significant portion of Judge Kavanaugh’s White House record-announced on the eve of his confirmation hearing for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court-is deeply concerning.

Kavanaugh said victims of sexual harassment need better information about how to come forward. “I will do equal right to the poor and to the rich”, Kavanaugh said.

A Catholic, he has been a US Court of Appeals judge in Washington for the past 11 years.

Earlier in the hearing, Kavanaugh had also made the point that he wasn’t anti-regulation. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer complained it was impossible to go through them in time.

Chief among them was his views on abortion amid concerns that Kavanaugh’s confirmation will all but ensure an end to legal abortion across the United States, long a goal of ultra-conservatives. “A judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent”, he said.

But with Wednesday offering the first opportunity for lawmakers to question Kavanaugh, it is unclear what disruptions, if any, will emerge. “Yes, of course he will”, the former presidential nominee tweeted.

But Republican Senator Orrin Hatch dismissed the concerns raised about the judge as “ridiculous”.

“I owe my loyalty to the Constitution”, Kavanaugh responded, holding up his tattered copy of the document.

The quick adjournment allows Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley to continue his panel’s hearing for as long as he would like on Wednesday. He has only reportedly made one comment about it, supposedly telling a ME senator that it is “settled law”.

Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Yet my own favorite moment was Judge Kavanaughs answer to a question from Senator Mike Lee of Utah. He said in the interview that he was never charged in the matter and that he never it considered his action to be hacking, because the documents were on a shared computer server. They want to review 100,000 documents about Kavanaugh’s record being withheld by the White House as well as some 42,000 documents released to the committee on a confidential basis on the eve of the hearing, along with others not sought by Republicans on the committee.

Republican Senator John Cornyn branded the chaos “mob rule”.

Denounced Grassley, that is, in between protests from citizens seated in the hearing room, who in turn were angrily denouncing the candidate and the process by which he is to be confirmed.

“If you love America, stop this travesty!” boomed one woman.

The group’s restrained method was a sharp contrast to other scenes going on throughout the Senate side of Capitol Hill.